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March 2, 2008
Zunerama re-engaged
by Harvey Chute
Hello friends, and patient forum members. Thanks to Zunerama's members and mods for keeping the site chuggin' while I've been dealing with work issues and family matters.
Zunerama is now officially back from that hiatus, and I look forward to getting back to the blog, and seeing you all in the forums.
Zune on, brothers and sisters! We have a lot to catch up on.
- Harvey
January 26, 2008
Zune at 2008 Winter X Games
by Harvey Chute
Are you watching the X Games in Aspen this weekend?
If so, you may be seeing a lot of Zune - it's the exclusive digital media sponsor of this year's Winter X Games.
The Zune team is all over the event, with a Zune interactive village booth, a "pop-up shop" in downtown Aspen, special giveaways and promotions, and TV, online, and print advertising. More info here.
Are you there? Send us pics!
Pic credit (from 2007 X Games): BishopZune.
January 13, 2008
Wireless sharing needs a beep
by Harvey Chute
Are you a Zune owner who's had the little thrill of seeing another Zune pop up in your "nearby" list? It's actually becoming more common, based on my personal experience of seeing Zunes in the wild. My most recent: a candy-red flash Zune spotted in the day lodge at Mount Baker this past weekend.
Slowly but surely, wireless sharing is becoming more common. But there's a simple problem that thwarts opportunities for sharing.
Namely, your player doesn't give you any audible clue when someone offers to send you a track or a picture. If you don't happen to be looking at your player, you'll never know that the attempt was made!
I've probably already missed some Zune socializing, because my Zune rests in my pocket once I've kicked off a playlist. For a long time, we've had it on our wishlist for Zune players to give a subtle audible beep when you're contacted by another Zuner.
Forum member Niklaren has raised this point again. I think its even more pertinent now that there are more Zune players out there in the wireless ether.
As it turns out, not everyone agrees. Let us know what you think!
January 6, 2008
Oh! Canada!
by Harvey Chute
Well, by golly, one of our CES predictions actually turned out to be true, as just moments ago Bill Gates announced that Zune is coming to Canada. Hooray!
I'm trying to find out the precise timeframe for Zune's hop across the 49th parallel - beyond an unsubstantiated "Spring 2008".
Note: this is Bill Gates' final CES keynote, bookending his keynote of the very first CES fifteen years ago. You can see the it live-blogged by CrunchGear, or watch the keynote at Microsoft's CES page.
Happy New Year, fellow Canadians!
January 6, 2008
Zune announcements at CES tomorrow?
by Harvey Chute
The greatest gadget show on earth starts on Monday: the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. 2,700 exhibitors. 1.8 million net square feet of exhibit space. 140,000 attendees.
And lots of product announcements. What will we hear about Zune?
Given that the new Zune players, software, and social are less than two months old, our expectations are low that there'll be significant Zune announcements at the show.
That hasn't stopped our members from speculating, though. Special editions? New colors? Video downloads from Marketplace? Further Xbox integration? International roll-out?
Add your thoughts and speculation in our CES thread!
January 5, 2008
12 Zunerama members take home WraptorSkinz
by Harvey Chute
Congratulations to saleen, the chicken, Wes2theG, Ixtab, ZUNINSINCE11-14-06, Black Dragon, novasoccer, B-Rad, Josh098, BigD1961, zuneblack, and Lord Moon - twelve Zunerama members who each win their choice of Zune skin from WraptorSkinz.
There are always free goodies up for grabs in our giveaway board. Join the 227 Zunerama members who have won Zune players, cases, chargers, and other accessories!
January 4, 2008
Serious help for metadata issues
by Harvey Chute
The #1 complaint for the new Zune software is its perplexing tendency to muddle up metadata for some users.
Now Zunerama member WillysJeepMan (a.k.a. sracer) has stepped forward with a brilliant post, detailing "Exhaustive Step-by-Step Instructions for Getting Zune Software to Correctly Recognize a Music Library".
What's this about? In a bug acknowledged by Microsoft, Zune software can import metadata tags incorrectly into its database. When this occurs, strange results can appear in your music library, such as incorrect album art being displayed, or tracks showing up in the wrong albums.
Curiously, I experienced some of this in my own collection, but the symptoms went away on their own in a few days, without any corrective action on my part. I am guessing that Zune software continued to scan my metadata and apply changes over time that gradually resolved those errors.
For many of our forum members, though, metadata glitches continue to affect their collection - which is annoying even if affects a small subset of one's collection.
While Microsoft has released some partial fixes, we're still awaiting a satisfying resolution.
If you're determined to correct those issues, do yourself a favor and check out the guide.
Zune Travel Pack
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Zune Car Pack
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Zune Home A/V Pack
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Zune Tough Skin
January 1, 2008
An homage to our international members
by Harvey Chute
Zunerama has many members and visitors from outside the USA. (Our past 100,000 visits came from 146 countries!)
Unfortunately, many of our giveaways are for U.S. residents only. In recognition of that, we're kicking off a giveaway today that is exclusively for our international members.
We're giving away a licensed copy of M2Convert for Zune - a commercial software package that converts DVDs and multimedia files into Zune-compatible files. In addition to DVDs, the product converts multimedia files on your hard drive for play on your Zune. It supports most popular video and audio formats and retails for $34.99.
So consider this a special "thank you" to our international members! You can enter to win here.
December 31, 2007
What a year!
by Harvey Chute
As Zunerama draws its second year of operations to a close, I want to say a warm "Thank You" to all the members and visitors to this site. It has been an eventful year!
Some highlights:
And a few more stats:
Our site traffic grew throughout the year, and forum membership reached 5,700 members. Welcome everyone! Members have posted over 70,000 posts in over 7,700 topic threads. As the year closes, Zunerama's forums are closing in on 6 million pageviews. Wow.
Thanks to all of our members for a fun and fascinating year! You make a great community. Happy New Year!
- Harvey
December 29, 2007
Understanding "sync groups"
by Harvey Chute
With last month's release of Zune's second-generation software, the nature of sync has changed.
Sync, of course, refers to the action of synchronizing your PC's contents with your Zune player. Previously, you had two options: automatic sync (in which your player was always kept in sync with your PC content); and manual sync - in which only content that you dragged-and-dropped to your player icon was synced.
The new software supports automatic sync in the same way. But manual sync - or the "Let Me Choose" option - works a little differently.
When you select the "Let Me Choose" setting in Zune software (under Device > Settings), your PC collection will not be automatically synced to your player. Instead, only content that you drag-and-drop to your player icon will be synced.
Sounds like the old manual sync, right? Not quite.
First, you can select "Let Me Choose" separately for each content type (Music, Video, Pictures, or Podcasts). In the old Zune software, manual sync was an all-or-nothing choice.
When you do that drag-and-drop, Zune software creates a "sync group". Zune software will then keep that particular content group updated on your player with any changes on your PC.
Example: you drag-and-drop a folder of pictures ("My family pix") to your Zune. You've created a sync group, and whenever the contents of that folder changes, those changes are reflected on your player - automatically, the next time you sync.
Example: you drag-and-drop an album to your Zune. Later, you delete two of the album's songs from your collection. The next time you sync, those songs will be deleted from your player.
Example: you drag-and-drop a playlist to your Zune. Any changes that you subsequently make to that playlist will be automatically reflected on your player, the next time you sync.
In a nutshell: sync groups allow you to have the benefits of automatic sync, for a selected subset of the collection on your PC.
December 28, 2007
Zune nears 1/6 of iTunes traffic
by Harvey Chute
Website traffic monitor Hitwise has released traffic data for Zune.net, indicating that Zune traffic nearly quadrupled this Christmas compared to last Christmas. More surprisingly, it reported that Zune had almost 1/6th the traffic of iTunes on Christmas Day.
That's a huge slice of traffic! It drives WebProNews to comment on the "massive increase in the traffic" for Zune.net because of the Zune 80 being "a big hit among holiday shoppers".
The statistic is curious to me. Surely it's a safe assumption that the ratio of gifted iPods to Zunes is much greater than 6:1. If that's the case, why is Zune online traffic so disproportionately high?
I think it's attributable to several factors:
1. Need for Zune software. Most people who received Zunes would need to go to Zune.net to download the Zune software. In contrast, most people who received iPods would already have iTunes installed - so no online visit needed.
2. Zune Pass effect. People who received Zune Passes would contribute significant traffic to Zune Marketplace. There's no counterpart to that subscription model in the iPod world, so no corresponding iTunes traffic.
3. Zune Social effect. Some people who received Zunes may have gone to Zune Social to check out the online community, and register their Zune cards. There's no iPod counterpart to that.
4. Troubleshooting. With Zune software being relatively new, less familiar to people, and (at least according to some) quirkier/buggier than iTunes, some traffic may be attributed to people going to Zune.net for troubleshooting.
You can add your theories in the Comments. Item (4) notwithstanding, the high traffic volume is a surprisingly good sign for Zune holiday sales.
on Amazon:
Black,
White,
Brown
December 26, 2007
How to dispose of that old iPod
by Harvey Chute
Congratulations - you scored a Zune this holiday!
If your old player is an iPod, here's a way you can convert it into cash.
We've been testing an affiliate alliance with BeyondthePod.com, which runs an efficient aftermarket trading post for used electronics.
In four easy steps, you select your iPod model, calculate its cash value, ship it, and get paid.
That really beats handing it down to your kid brother. He deserves a Zune, anyway.
December 26, 2007
Zune won't charge? 11 troubleshooting tips
by Harvey Chute
Our forums have been buzzing with a surge of new members who have joined us after opening their Christmas Zunes. Welcome all!
Some new owners, especially of refurbished 30GB players, have reported issues with charging their Zunes.
We've compiled a list of 11 Zune charging tips. Give'm a try, and hopefully they'll get you past that low-battery icon.
If not, let us know in our Zune help forum. Members are standing by to help out the new members of our Zunerama community.